The first written reference to Varaždin, whose historical name is Garestin, was on 20 August 1181, when King Béla III mentioned the nearby thermal springs (Varaždinske Toplice) in a legal document.[5]

Varaždin was declared a free royal borough in 1209 by the Hungarian King Andrew II. The town became the economic and military centre of northern Croatia. Due to Ottoman raids, the town was structured defensively around the old fortress, and acquired the shape of a typical medieval Wasserburg. In the early 13th century, the Knights Hospitaller (Croatian: Ivanovci) came to Varaždin, where they built the church and a monastery.[5]

At the end of the 14th century, Varaždin fortress passed to the hands of the Counts of Celje. Over the following centuries Varaždin had several owners, the most influential being Beatrice Frankopan, Margrave Georg of Brandenburg, who built the town hall; the last was Baron Ivan Ungnad, who reinforced the existing fortification. At the end of the 16th century CountThomas Erdődy became its owner, assuming the hereditary position of Varaždin prefects (župan), and the fortress remained in the ownership of the Erdődy family until 1925.

Varasd and Varaždin on a 3 kr stamp 1881 issue

In 1756, the BanFerenc Nádasdy chose Varaždin as his official residence, and Varaždin became the capital of all of Croatia. It hosted the Croatian Sabor and the Royal Croatian Council founded by Empress Maria Theresa.

The periods of the Reformation and the counter-reformation had a great influence on Varaždin. With the arrival of the Jesuits, the school (gymnasium) and the Jesuit house were founded, and churches and other buildings were built in the Baroque style. In the 18th century Varaždin was the seat of many Croatian noblemen, and in 1756 it became the Croatian administrative centre. The fire of 1776 destroyed most of the town, resulting in the administrative institutions moving back to Zagreb.[5]

By the 19th century Varaždin had been completely rebuilt and expanded, with flourishing crafts and trade, and later the manufacture of silk and bricks. The theatre, music school, and fire department were founded.

In the 20th century Varaždin developed into the industrial centre of Northwestern Croatia. The textile manufacturer Tivar was founded in 1918. In the Croatian War of Independence, 1991, Varaždin suffered directly for only for a few days, because the huge Yugoslav People's Army base quickly surrendered, resulting in a minimal number of casualties, and providing weapons (worth $600m) for the Croatian army.

Varaždin represents the best preserved and richest urban complex in continental Croatia.

Varaždin's Croatian National Theater.

Church of Saint Nicholas.

The Old Town (fortress) is an example of medieval defensive buildings. Construction began in the 14th century, and in the following century the rounded towers, typical of Gothic architecture in Croatia, were added. Today it houses the Town Museum. The fortress is depicted on the reverse of the Croatian 5 kuna banknote, issued in 1993 and 2001.[6]

In 1523, Margrave Georg of Brandenburg built the town hall in late baroque style, with the Varaždin coat of arms at the foot of the tower, and it has continued in its function until the present day. There is a guard-changing ceremony every Saturday.

Varaždin's Cathedral, a former Jesuit church, was built in 1647, and is distinguished by its baroque entrance, eighteenth-century altar, and paintings.

There are many baroque and rococo palaces and houses in the town. Worth particular mention is Varaždin's Croatian National Theatre, built in 1873 and designed by the famous Viennese architects Herman Helmer and Ferdinand Fellner.

A baroque music festival has been held annually in Varaždin since 1971, and attracts some of the finest musicians and their fans from Croatia and the world. Recommended to visitors is also the historical street festival Špancir fest every September.

The city features its old city guard, named Purgari, in various city ceremonies as well as the weekly ceremony of the 'change of the guards' in front of the city hall. Additionally, Varaždin police officers patrol on bicycles in the warmer months.[7]

The Old Town keep is one of the biggest monuments in the city of Varaždin and one of its biggest tourist attractions. It is located in the north-western section of the city core. Today the keep houses the Varaždin City Museum.

The keep is first mentioned in the 12th century and it is believed to be the center of Varaždin county life. The keep underwent numerous ownership changes and reconstructions over the centuries.

The Old Town was featured on the now defunct 5 Kuna bill. On the bill, the picture is a mirror image of the actual appearance of the keep.

The cemetery date back to 1773 and it was long time an ordinary place until 1905, when Herman Haller had an idea to make it more beautiful and park-like with large trees and alleys for citizens to stroll through. The reconstruction of the cemetery was done between 1905 and 1947 when it got the form for which it later became one of the most beautiful cemeteries in Europe. It is an outstanding example of landscape architecture and protected cultural and natural park.

THE OLD TOWN (STARI GRAD) Museum houses the Cultural and Historic Collection. The Old Town Museum has been a part of the Varaždin City Museum organization since 1925. Today is features: over 400 pieces from the glass, ceramics and clocks collection, 10 rooms furnished in chronological period style (renaissance, baroque, rococo, Empire, Biedermeier, historicism and art deco), a chapel and sacristy, and 2 rooms dedicated to two prominent men from Varaždin, Vatroslav Jagić and Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski.

THE HERZER PALACE houses the Entomological Collection focusing on The World of Insects. There are over 4500 exhibits which clearly show the biology of bugs through several topics:In the forest, Near the forest and on the meadow, In the water and near the water, At night and underground.

THE SERMAGE PALACE houses the Gallery of Old and Contemporary Masters Art Gallery. It is home to over 5300 works of art separated in 10 collections with works ranging from the 15th to the 20th century.

Varaždin is connected with A4highway that runs between Zagreb (south) and Čakovec / Hungarian border (just north). Varaždin and Zagreb are also connected with the southern part of the state road D3 which serves as an alternative to tolled highway. Varaždin is also directly connected to Slovenian border (north-east) and to Podravina / Slavonia counties (west) with the state road D2, to Krapina-Zagorje County (east) with the state roads D35 and D24 (road that connects to D3 in Novi Marof, just south from Varaždin) and to Međimurje County (just north) with the northern part of the state road D3. The town is fully encircled by the bypass which represents the parts of D2 and D3 roads. The bypass was constructed gradually between the mid-1970s and mid-2000s (oldest, north part was built between 1978 and 1979, east part was built during the second half of the 1980s and the newest, south-west part was completed in 2007).

Varaždin is also hub for bus transportation enterprise "AP Varaždin" which offers regional, distant (multi-regional) and occasional passenger bus transportation service between Varaždin and large number of towns across the country but also offers international lines.

Varaždin's railway station is one of the largest and most important train stations in northern Croatia. It represents the intersection of three Croatian railway corridors that are used for both passenger and freight traffic. All of the rail corridors that start or end in Varaždin are single-tracked and non-electrified. It is the terminus for one local line (L201 connecting Golubovec), one regional line (R202 connecting Dalj via Koprivnica, Virovitica and Osijek) and also lies on R201 line through which trains directly connect the town with Zagreb and most of Krapina-Zagorje County (on south) and with Međimurje County (just north). Although the largest number of direct passenger trains from Zagreb to Varaždin run via the R201 corridor (through the north-western part of the country), an alternative way to travel by train between those two cities is via the R202 line between Varaždin and Koprivnica, and the M201 line between Koprivnica and Zagreb (through the north-eastern part of the country). Although this route requires transfer in Koprivnica in some cases, journeys by this route may take shorter travel time.

Varaždin is one of the few Croatian cities whose industry did not directly suffer from the war in 1991. Besides textile giant Varteks, it also has nationally important food (Vindija), metal, and construction industries. The Information Technology and financial and banking sector as are well developed. Further economic development has been encouraged with the creation of a free investment zone.[3]

The city of Varaždin is easily accessible by major roads from all sides. The road infrastructure is good and the main highway connection is A4, connecting the Hungary border-crossing point in Goričan with Zagreb, as well as the coast of the Adriatic Sea via A1/A6. A2 is also accessible through the Zagorje region. In addition to the highways, there is also an east-west state route connecting the city to the Slovenian border, and Koprivnica, Osijek and the east part of Croatia. The city is connected to the suburbs and villages surrounding it with a public transportation system of buses. The city also has a train and bus station, which are both located about a 10-minute walk from the center. The trains are mainly used for cargo, due to the lack of investment in the country's train infrastructure. Varaždin's bus service is of high quality and use, it offers regular service to many local, domestic and international routes, as well as many additional seasonal routes to the Adriatic Sea. There is also taxi service available on-call which is situated by the bus station. In the outskirts of the city there is also a small recreational airport, used mainly for sightseeing and farming purposes.

Today Varaždin is a popular destination for the summer holidays. The city has numerous areas of interests ranging from cultural areas (reflected by many museums, galleries and theaters in the area), shopping centers in the downtown core, various sports and recreation facilities, also a rich history in cuisine. The close of the tourist season is marked by two annual festivals. The annual ŠpancirFest begins at the end of August and ends in September (lasts for 10 days). At this time. the city welcomes artists, street performers, musicians and vendors for what is called "the street walking festival".

Varaždin has a rich and developed system of education, especially for a city of its size. It has seven elementary schools, 10 high schools (2 public gymnasiums, 2 private gymnasiums, trade schools, and other specialized high schools for various paths), 4 higher schools (equivalent to college) and 2 faculties (Faculty of Organization and Information Technology and Geotechnical faculty) that are part of the University of Zagreb.

1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation

2.
Croatia
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Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a sovereign state between Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean. Its capital city is Zagreb, which one of the countrys primary subdivisions. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres and has diverse, mostly continental, Croatias Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The countrys population is 4.28 million, most of whom are Croats, the Croats arrived in the area of present-day Croatia during the early part of the 7th century AD. They organised the state into two duchies by the 9th century, tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Petar Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the unrecognized State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs which seceded from Austria-Hungary, a fascist Croatian puppet state backed by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany existed during World War II. After the war, Croatia became a member and a federal constituent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia declared independence, which came wholly into effect on 8 October of the same year, the Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration. A unitary state, Croatia is a republic governed under a parliamentary system, the International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high-income economy. Croatia is a member of the European Union, United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, the service sector dominates Croatias economy, followed by the industrial sector and agriculture. Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world, the state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatias most important trading partner, since 2000, the Croatian government constantly invests in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Internal sources produce a significant portion of energy in Croatia, the rest is imported, the origin of the name is uncertain, but is thought to be a Gothic or Indo-Aryan term assigned to a Slavic tribe. The oldest preserved record of the Croatian ethnonym *xъrvatъ is of variable stem, the first attestation of the Latin term is attributed to a charter of Duke Trpimir from the year 852. The original is lost, and just a 1568 copy is preserved—leading to doubts over the authenticity of the claim, the oldest preserved stone inscription is the 9th-century Branimir Inscription, where Duke Branimir is styled as Dux Cruatorvm. The inscription is not believed to be dated accurately, but is likely to be from during the period of 879–892, the area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period

3.
Counties of Croatia
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The counties of Croatia are the primary administrative subdivisions of the Republic of Croatia. Since they were re-established in 1992, Croatia has been divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. As of 2015, the counties are subdivided into 128 cities and 428 municipalities, County assembly is a representative and deliberative body in each county. Assembly members are elected for a term by popular vote in local elections. The executive branch of each countys government is headed by a county prefect, Administrative departments and services are managed by heads nominated by the county prefect on the basis of a public competition. In each county exists a State Administration Office which performs the tasks of the central government, head of State Administration Office is appointed by the Croatian Government. The counties are funded by the government, as well as from county-owned businesses, county taxes. County taxes include a five percent inheritance and gift tax, a vehicle tax, a vessel tax. The Croatian County Association was set up in 2003 as a framework for inter-county cooperation, the Croatian term županija was originally applied to territory controlled by a župan. Since the 12th century, the counties have also referred to by the Latin term comitatus. Croatia was first subdivided into counties in the Middle Ages, counties were first introduced in Croatia during the House of Trpimirovićs rule. It is generally thought that the Pannonian counties were subject to the Croatian monarchy. Other forms of administration that overlapped with county administration in this included the Roman Catholic Church and the free royal cities. After Croatia became a land of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1527, the importance of counties faded even further. This layout largely remained in effect until the Croatian counties were abolished in 1922, the counties were set up as self-governmental units in contrast to earlier county incarnations since the Middle Ages. Each had an assembly with the wealthiest taxpayers comprising half the assembly members, supreme prefect was appointed by the king and county officials by the ban. Managing board of each county had 6 members elected by the county assembly, counties were divided into districts, while municipalities and cities were units of local self-government. Communist-ruled Croatia, as a constituent part of post-World War II Yugoslavia, međimurje County was established in the eponymous region acquired through the 1920 Treaty of Trianon

4.
Social Democratic Party of Croatia
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The Social Democratic Party of Croatia is a social-democratic political party and the largest party of the Croatian centre-left. The SDP is one of the two political parties in Croatia, along with the right-wing Croatian Democratic Union. The party first won the elections in 2000 and formed a government headed by Ivica Račan. After losing the 2003 general election, the party remained in opposition for eight years, in 2011 parliamentary election SDP won 61 out of 151 seats in the Croatian Parliament, and managed to form 12th Croatian Government with its partners from the Kukuriku coalition. After SDP and its coalition partners failed to achieve agreement on forming new government following 2015 general election, former SDP member and presidential candidate Ivo Josipović served as the third President of Croatia from 2010 to 2015. Another SDP member, Neven Mimica is the current European Commissioner for International Cooperation, the SDP is a member of the Party of European Socialists, Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, Progressive Alliance, and the Socialist International. The SDP was established on 3 November 1990 by the democratic faction of the former League of Communists of Croatia. At the same time Croatia was preparing for its first multi-party election following the decision made by SKH in December 1989 which envisioned elections in April, in February 1990 the SR Croatia parliament adopted amendments to the constitution which enabled a multi-party system. On 3 November 1990 the party was established in its current form. In 1993 the party re-branded themselves again and changed their name to the Social Democratic Party, in 1990, a parallel Social Democratic Party of Croatia was founded. It was later renamed to the Social Democrats of Croatia, in the first Croatian parliamentary election,1990, SDSH joined the centrist Coalition of Peoples Accord and fared badly, winning only 21 out of 351 seats. However, its position was enough to warrant ministerial posts in the national unity government of Franjo Gregurić which was in power from July 1991 to August 1992. However, its two ministers Bosiljko Mišetić and Zvonimir Baletić defected to the conservative Croatian Democratic Union soon after their appointment, before the 1992 parliamentary and presidential elections, SDSH was involved in bitter dispute with the SDP over its rebranding into the Social Democratic Party of Croatia. SDSH claimed that its name was stolen, the election showed SDP to be much stronger party than SDSH, which failed to win parliament seats. At the same time, SDSH leader Antun Vujić finished last in the 1992 presidential race and this ultimately led to SDSH and SDP patching their differences and former being incorporated into the latter in April 1994. In August 1998 SDP and HSLS leaders Ivica Račan and Dražen Budiša signed a coalition agreement, the SDP-HSLS coalition won the election with 38. 7% of the vote and 71 out of 151 seats. SDP and HSLS then formed a six-way centre-left coalition government along with the Croatian Peasant Party, the Liberal Party, Croatian Peoples Party, Račan, as the leader of the strongest party, became Prime Minister in the first Račan cabinet. This period was marred with constant disagreements among members on various issues

5.
Croatian Democratic Union
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The Croatian Democratic Union is a conservative political party and the main centre-right political party in Croatia. It is one of the two major political parties in Croatia, along with the centre-left Social Democratic Party. It is currently the largest party in the Sabor with 56 seats, the HDZ ruled Croatia from 1990 after the country gained independence from Yugoslavia until 2000 and, in coalition with junior partners, from 2003 to 2011 as well as since 2016. The party is a member of the European Peoples Party, the HDZ was founded on 17 June 1989 by Croatian dissidents led by Franjo Tuđman. It was officially registered on 25 January 1990, the HDZ held its first convention on 24–25 February 1990, when Franjo Tuđman was elected its president. When the party was founded, the government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia just introduced a multi-party system in Croatia, President Tuđman and other HDZ officials traveled abroad and gathered large financial contributions from Croatian expatriates. On the eve of the 1990 parliamentary elections, the ruling League of Communists of Croatia saw such tendencies within the HDZ as an opportunity to remain in power. May 30,1990 - the day the HDZ formally took power - was later celebrated as Statehood Day, the presidential elections followed in 1992 and Tuđman, who would remain as undisputed party leader until his death in 1999, was elected president. The party ruled Croatia throughout the 1990s and under its leadership, Croatia became independent, was internationally recognized, during that period, the HDZ won both the 1992 and 1995 parliamentary elections. As it strongly advocated Croatian independence, the HDZ was quite unpopular with the Serb minority and this was one of the factors contributing to the creation of the Republic of Serbian Krajina and the subsequent armed conflict in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, the policies of Tuđman and the HDZ shifted according to the circumstances, the HDZ also began to lead Croatia toward political and economic transition from communism to capitalism. Notably, HDZ governments implemented privatization in the country, in a manner that critics consider sub-optimal, according to the HDZ, this process proved a useful distraction from dealing with the baggage of post World War II communist nationalizations. This model was widely abused, not only by the HDZ, not all of the nationalized property was dealt with in this way. The property of those who could lobby the HDZ, or who had influence in Croatian politics, was returned without much delay. Restitution for land seized during the break-up of Yugoslavia is still of great public concern, all this, together with Tuđmans death in December 1999, affected the 2000 parliamentary elections. This period proved to be a low point for the HDZ and those included Mate Granić, who, together with Vesna Škare-Ožbolt, left to form the centre-right Democratic Centre. The HDZ began to recover when the International Criminal Tribunal began to prosecute Croatian Army commanders, popular discontent manifested itself in mass rallies as the public came to terms with the changes in the party and its policies. This tendency continued when the Croatian Social Liberal Party shifted rightwards, at first it looked that Sanader would lose, but with the help of Branimir Glavaš and the tacit support of liberal sections of Croatian public opinion, he won at the party convention

6.
People's Party - Reformists
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Peoples Party - Reformists is a liberal political party in Croatia. The partys founding congress was held on September 28,2014 in Zagreb, Radimir Čačić was unanimously elected for the first party president. Ahead of the 2015 parliamentary election the party formed a coalition, Successful Croatia, in the 2015 election, the party won one seat in the Croatian Parliament in the III electoral district, held by Radimir Čačić. Čačić voted in favor of approving Cabinet of Tihomir Orešković, the following is a summary of the partys results in legislative elections for the Croatian parliament. The total votes and percentage columns include sums of votes won by pre-election coalitions NS-R had been part of

7.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year

8.
Central European Summer Time
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It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone

9.
Vehicle registration plate
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A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate or a license plate, is metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric ID that uniquely identifies the owner within the issuing regions database. The first two letters indicate the state to which the vehicle is registered, the next two digit numbers are the sequential number of a district. Due to heavy volume of vehicle registration, the numbers were given to the RTO offices of registration as well, the third part indicates the year of registration of the vehicle and is a 4 digit number unique to each plate. In some countries, the identifier is unique within the entire country, whether the identifier is associated with a vehicle or a person also varies by issuing agency. In the vast majority of jurisdictions, the government holds a monopoly on the manufacturing of vehicle registration plates for that jurisdiction. Thus, it is illegal for private citizens to make and affix their own plates. Alternately, the government will merely assign plate numbers, and it is the owners responsibility to find an approved private supplier to make a plate with that number. In some jurisdictions, plates will be assigned to that particular vehicle for its lifetime. If the vehicle is destroyed or exported to a different country. Other jurisdictions follow a policy, meaning that when a vehicle is sold the seller removes the current plate from the vehicle. Buyers must either obtain new plates or attach plates they already hold, as well as register their vehicles under the buyers name, a person who sells a car and then purchases a new one can apply to have the old plates put onto the new car. One who sells a car and does not buy a new one may, depending on the laws involved, have to turn the old plates in or destroy them. Some jurisdictions permit the registration of the vehicle with personal plates, in some jurisdictions, plates require periodic replacement, often associated with a design change of the plate itself. Vehicle owners may or may not have the option to keep their original plate number, alternately, or additionally, vehicle owners have to replace a small decal on the plate or use a decal on the windshield to indicate the expiration date of the vehicle registration. Plates are usually fixed directly to a vehicle or to a frame that is fixed to the vehicle. Sometimes, the plate frames contain advertisements inserted by the service centre or the dealership from which the vehicle was purchased. Vehicle owners can also purchase customized frames to replace the original frames, in some jurisdictions licence plate frames are illegal

10.
Patron saint
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Catholics believe that patron saints, having already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges. Historically, a practice has also occurred in many Islamic lands. With regard to the omnipresence of this belief, the late Martin Lings wrote. Traditionally, it has been understood that the saint of a particular place prays for that places wellbeing and for the health. Saints often become the patrons of places where they were born or had been active, professions sometimes have a patron saint owing to that individual being involved somewhat with it, although some of the connections were tenuous. Lacking such a saint, an occupation would have a patron whose acts or miracles in some way recall the profession and it is, however, generally discouraged in some Protestant branches such as Calvinism, where the practice is considered a form of idolatry. In Islam, the veneration or commemoration and recognition of saints is found in many branches of traditional Sunnism

11.
Saint Nicholas
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Saint Nicholas, also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century Christian saint and Greek Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor. Because of the miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker. The historical Saint Nicholas is commemorated and revered among Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, in addition, some Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and other Reformed churches have been named in honor of Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas is the saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers. The historical Saint Nicholas, as known from history, He was born at Patara. In his youth he made a pilgrimage to Egypt and the Palestine area, shortly after his return he became Bishop of Myra and was later cast into prison during the persecution of Diocletian. He was released after the accession of Constantine and was present at the Council of Nicaea, in 1087, Italian merchants took his body from Myra, bringing it to Bari in Italy. Nicholas was born in Asia Minor in the Roman Empire, to a Greek family during the century in the city of Patara. He lived in Myra, Lycia, at a time when the region was Greek in its heritage, culture and he was the only son of wealthy Christian parents named Epiphanius and Johanna according to some accounts and Theophanes and Nonna according to others. He was very religious from an age and according to legend. His wealthy parents died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young and he tonsured the young Nicholas as a reader and later ordained him a presbyter. In the year AD305, several monks from Anatolia in Asia Minor came to the Holy Land to Beit Jala, Judea and this was before St. Sava’s Monastery was founded in the desert east of Bethlehem on the Kidron Gorge near the Dead Sea. These monks lived on the mountain overlooking Bethlehem in a few caves, in the years 312–315, St. Nicholas lived there and came as a pilgrim to visit the Holy Sepulchre, Golgotha, Bethlehem, and many other sites in the Holy Land. The Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church is located on the site of his cave in Beit Jala where today there are stories about Nicholas still handed down from generation to generation. A text written in his own hand is still in the care of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, in 317 he returned to Asia Minor and was soon thereafter consecrated bishop in Myra. In 325, he was one of many bishops to answer the request of Constantine and appear at the First Council of Nicaea, there, Nicholas was a staunch anti-Arian, defender of the Orthodox Christian position, and one of the bishops who signed the Nicene Creed. Tradition has it that he became so angry with the heretic Arius during the Council that he struck him in the face. The modern city of Demre, Turkey is built near the ruins of the home town of ancient Myra

12.
Northern Croatia
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The Kajkavian dialect is spoken there. It shares borders with Hungary and Slovenia, the term is not used in official capacity but is present as a regional designation. Until 2012, the regions borders coincided with the NUTS-2 region Northwest Croatia and this NUTS-2 region has since been deprecated and the corresponding region has merged with Central and Eastern Croatia forming the NUTS-2 region Continental Croatia. The Međimurska gibanica is one of the layer cakes popular in Northern Croatia, the Northern Croatia region is at the borders with Austria, Hungary, and Slovenia. The North-South highway corridor provides access to the Adriatic, which is an advantage to the other countries in Southern Europe. All of North Croatia is connected to the rest of Croatia by highways, 95% of the houses in the region have sufficient ADSL internet access, and some businesses have used fibre optics to do their business. The region has a well maintained gas network. The innovative sector of Northern Croatia has experienced growth in the past years, in 2005, Microsoft established a worker training center in Varaždin. Following this, many companies have established universities in the fields of Information technology, Automation. The continued investment in universities in the region meet the demands of the consumers that live there. The availability of human resources in a university in Varazdin has led to advances in software

13.
Zagreb
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Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of Croatia. It is located in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately 122 m above sea level. In the last official census of 2011 the population of the City of Zagreb was 792,875, the wider Zagreb metropolitan area includes the City of Zagreb and the separate Zagreb County bringing the total metropolitan area population up to 1,237,887. It is the biggest metropolitan area in Croatia, and the one with a population of over one million. Zagreb is a city with a history dating from the Roman times to the present day. The oldest settlement located in the vicinity of the city was the Roman Andautonia, the name Zagreb is recorded in 1134, in reference to the foundation of the settlement at Kaptol in 1094. Zagreb became a royal town in 1242. In 1851 Zagreb had its first mayor, Janko Kamauf, and in 1945 it was made the capital of Croatia when the demographic boom, the city extends over 30 kilometres east-west and around 20 kilometres north-south. The transport connections, concentration of industry, scientific, and research institutions, Zagreb is the seat of the central government, administrative bodies, and almost all government ministries. Almost all of the largest Croatian companies, media, and scientific institutions have their headquarters in the city and it is a city known for its diverse economy, high quality of living, museums, sporting, and entertainment events. Its main branches of economy are high-tech industries and the service sector, the etymology of the name Zagreb is unclear. It was used of the city only from 1852, but it had been in use as the name of the Zagreb dioecese since the 12th century. The name is first recorded in a charter by Ostrogon archbishop Felician, dated 1134, the older form of the name is Zagrab, the modern Croatian form Zagreb is first recorded in a 1689 map by Nicolas Sanson. An even older form is reflected in Hungarian Zabrag, for this, Desy proposes the etymology of Chabrag, a well-attested hypocorism of the name Cyprian. The same form is reflected in a number of Hungarian toponyms, the name Agram was used in German in the Habsburg period, this name has been classified as probably of Roman origin but according to Desy it could be an Austrian German reanalysis of *Zugram. In Middle Latin and Modern Latin, Zagreb is known as Agranum, in Croatian folk etymology, the name of the city has been derived from either the verb za-grab-, meaning to scoop or to dig. One folk legend illustrating this derivation ties the name to a drought of the early 14th century, in another legend, a city governor is thirsty and orders a girl named Manda to scoop water from Manduševac well, using the imperative, zagrabi, Mando. The oldest settlement located near todays Zagreb was a Roman town of Andautonia, now Šćitarjevo, Gradec and Kaptol were united in 1851 by ban Josip Jelačić, who was credited for this, with the naming the main city square, Ban Jelačić Square in his honour

14.
Drava
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The Drava or Drave is a river in southern Central Europe. With a length of 749 kilometres, it is the fourth longest tributary of the Danube and its source is near the market town of Innichen, in the Puster Valley of South Tyrol, Italy. The river flows eastwards through East Tirol and Carinthia in Austria into the Styria region of Slovenia and it then turns southeast, passing through Croatia and forming most of the border between Croatia and Hungary, before it joins the Danube near Osijek. In ancient times the river was known as Latin, Dravus, cf. Sanskrit, द्रवति, dravati, the name is most likely of Celtic or Illyrian origin. The river gives its name to the species of tourmaline. The Drava and the Spöl are the two rivers originating in Italy that belong to the Danube drainage basin. The Drava sources are located at the divide between the market town of Innichen and neighbouring Toblach in the west, where the Rienz river rises. The river flows eastwards and after a few kilometres reaches the border with East Tyrol in Austria and it flows through Lienz and into Carinthia at Oberdrauburg. Downstream of Villach, it runs along the slopes of the Karawanks to Ferlach. The Drava passes into Slovenia at Dravograd, from where it runs for 142 kilometres via Vuzenica, Muta, Ruše, and Maribor to Ptuj, the river then passes Varaždin, Belišće and Osijek in Croatia, and Barcs in Hungary. It is navigable for about 90 kilometres from Čađavica in Croatia to its mouth, the hydrological parameters of Drava are regularly monitored in Croatia at Botovo, Terezino Polje, Donji Miholjac and Osijek. Currently, there are 22 hydroelectric power plants on the Drava

15.
Baroque
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The style began around 1600 in Rome and Italy, and spread to most of Europe. The aristocracy viewed the dramatic style of Baroque art and architecture as a means of impressing visitors by projecting triumph, power, Baroque palaces are built around an entrance of courts, grand staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence. However, baroque has a resonance and application that extend beyond a reduction to either a style or period. It is also yields the Italian barocco and modern Spanish barroco, German Barock, Dutch Barok, others derive it from the mnemonic term Baroco, a supposedly laboured form of syllogism in logical Scholastica. The Latin root can be found in bis-roca, in informal usage, the word baroque can simply mean that something is elaborate, with many details, without reference to the Baroque styles of the 17th and 18th centuries. The word Baroque, like most periodic or stylistic designations, was invented by later critics rather than practitioners of the arts in the 17th, the term Baroque was initially used in a derogatory sense, to underline the excesses of its emphasis. In particular, the term was used to describe its eccentric redundancy and noisy abundance of details, although it was long thought that the word as a critical term was first applied to architecture, in fact it appears earlier in reference to music. Another hypothesis says that the word comes from precursors of the style, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and he did not make the distinctions between Mannerism and Baroque that modern writers do, and he ignored the later phase, the academic Baroque that lasted into the 18th century. Long despised, Baroque art and architecture became fashionable between the two World Wars, and has remained in critical favour. In painting the gradual rise in popular esteem of Caravaggio has been the best barometer of modern taste, William Watson describes a late phase of Shang-dynasty Chinese ritual bronzes of the 11th century BC as baroque. The term Baroque may still be used, usually pejoratively, describing works of art, craft, the appeal of Baroque style turned consciously from the witty, intellectual qualities of 16th-century Mannerist art to a visceral appeal aimed at the senses. It employed an iconography that was direct, simple, obvious, germinal ideas of the Baroque can also be found in the work of Michelangelo. Even more generalised parallels perceived by some experts in philosophy, prose style, see the Neapolitan palace of Caserta, a Baroque palace whose construction began in 1752. In paintings Baroque gestures are broader than Mannerist gestures, less ambiguous, less arcane and mysterious, more like the stage gestures of opera, Baroque poses depend on contrapposto, the tension within the figures that move the planes of shoulders and hips in counterdirections. Baroque is a style of unity imposed upon rich, heavy detail, Baroque style featured exaggerated lighting, intense emotions, release from restraint, and even a kind of artistic sensationalism. There were highly diverse strands of Italian baroque painting, from Caravaggio to Cortona, the most prominent Spanish painter of the Baroque was Diego Velázquez. The later Baroque style gradually gave way to a more decorative Rococo, while the Baroque nature of Rembrandts art is clear, the label is less often used for Vermeer and many other Dutch artists. Flemish Baroque painting shared a part in this trend, while continuing to produce the traditional categories

16.
Hungarian language
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Hungarian is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary it is spoken by communities of Hungarian people in neighbouring countries. Like Finnish and Estonian, it belongs to the Uralic language family, its closest relatives being Mansi and it is one of several European languages not part of the Indo-European languages, and the most widely-spoken European language that does not belong to the Indo-European family. The Hungarian name for the language is magyar or magyar nyelv, the word Magyar is used as an English and Hungarian word to refer to Hungarian people as an ethnic group. Hungarian is a member of the Uralic language family, the name of Hungary could be a result of regular sound changes of Ungrian/Ugrian, and the fact that the Eastern Slavs referred to Hungarians as Ǫgry/Ǫgrove seemed to confirm that. Current literature favors the hypothesis that it comes from the name of the Turkic tribe Onogur, there are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and the other Ugric languages. For example, Hungarian /aː/ corresponds to Khanty /o/ in certain positions, for example, Hungarian ház house vs. Khanty xot house, and Hungarian száz hundred vs. Khanty sot hundred. The distance between the Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular, during the later half of the 19th century, a competing hypothesis proposed a Turkic affinity of Hungarian. Following an academic debate known as Az ugor-török háború, the Finno-Ugric hypothesis was concluded the sounder of the two, foremost based on work by the German linguist Josef Budenz. The traditional view argues that the Hungarian language separated from its Ugric relatives in the first half of the 1st millennium b. c. e. in western Siberia, east of the southern Urals. The Hungarians gradually changed their lifestyle from settled hunters to nomadic pastoralists, in Hungarian, Iranian loans date back to the time immediately following the breakup of Ugric and probably span well over a millennium. Among these include tehén ‘cow’, tíz ‘ten’, tej ‘milk’, increasing archaeological evidence from present-day southern Bashkortostan found in the previous decades confirms the existence of Hungarian settlements between the Volga River and Ural Mountains. The Onogurs later had a influence on the language, especially between the 5th-9th centuries. This layer of Turkic loans is large and varied, and includes words borrowed from Oghur Turkic, e. g. borjú ‘calf’, dél ‘noon, many words related to agriculture, to state administration or even to family relations have such backgrounds. Hungarian syntax and grammar were not influenced in a dramatic way during these 300 years. After the arrival of the Hungarians into the Carpathian Basin the language came into contact with different speech communities, Turkic loans from this period come mainly from the Pechenegs and Cumanians who settled in Hungary during the 12th-13th centuries, e. g. koboz ‘cobza’, komondor ‘mop dog’. Hungarian borrowed many words from especially the neighbouring Slavic languages, in exchange, these languages also borrowed words from Hungarian, e. g. Serbo-Croatian ašov from Hung ásó ‘spade’. Approximately 1. 6% of the Romanian lexicon is of Hungarian origin, on the basis of the growing genetic evidence, the accepted origin theory is contested by geneticists too

17.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form

18.
Kingdom of Hungary
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The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed from the Middle Ages into the twentieth century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen I at Esztergom in about the year 1000, by the 12th century, the kingdom became a European middle power within the Western world. The House of Habsburg held the Hungarian throne after the Battle of Mohács until 1918, from 1867 territories connected to the Hungarian crown were incorporated into Austria-Hungary under the name of Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen. The monarchy ended with the deposition of the last king Charles IV in 1918, the kingdom was nominally restored during the Regency of 1920–46, ending with the Soviet occupation in 1946. From 1102 it also included Croatia, being in union with it. Today, the feast day of the first king Stephen I is a holiday in Hungary. The Latin forms Regnum Hungariae or Ungarie, Regnum Marianum, or simply Hungaria, were the used in official documents in Latin from the beginning of the kingdom to the 1840s. The German name Königreich Ungarn was used officially from 1784 to 1790, the Hungarian name was used in the 1840s, and then again from the 1860s to 1946. The non-official Hungarian name of the kingdom was Magyarország, which is still the colloquial, in Austria-Hungary, the unofficial name Transleithania was sometimes used to denote the regions of the Kingdom of Hungary. Officially, the term Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen was included for the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary, the Hungarians led by Árpád settled the Carpathian Basin in 895, established Principality of Hungary. The Hungarians led several successful incursions to Western Europe, until they were stopped by Otto I, the principality was succeeded by the Christian Kingdom of Hungary with the coronation of St Stephen I at Esztergom on Christmas Day 1000. The first kings of the kingdom were from the Árpád dynasty and he fought against Koppány and in 998, with Bavarian help, defeated him near Veszprém. The Catholic Church received powerful support from Stephen I, who with Christian Hungarians, Stephen I of Hungary was canonized as a Catholic saint in 1083 and an Orthodox saint in 2000. After his death, a period of revolts and conflict for supremacy ensued between the royalty and the nobles, in 1051 armies of the Holy Roman Empire tried to conquer Hungary, but they were defeated at Vértes Mountain. The armies of the Holy Roman Empire continued to suffer defeats, before 1052 Peter Orseolo, a supporter of the Holy Roman Empire, was overthrown by king Samuel Aba of Hungary. This period of revolts ended during the reign of Béla I, Hungarian chroniclers praised Béla I for introducing new currency, such as the silver denarius, and for his benevolence to the former followers of his nephew, Solomon. The second greatest Hungarian king, also from the dynasty, was Ladislaus I of Hungary. He was also canonized as a saint, however, kingship over all of Croatia would not be achieved until the reign of his successor Coloman

19.
Andrew II of Hungary
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Andrew II, also known as Andrew of Jerusalem, was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1205 and 1235. He ruled the Principality of Halych from 1188 until 1189/1190, and he was the younger son of Béla III of Hungary, who entrusted him with the administration of the newly conquered Principality of Halych in 1188. Andrews rule was unpopular, and the boyars expelled him, Béla III willed property and money to Andrew, obliging him to lead a crusade to the Holy Land. Instead, Andrew forced his brother, King Emeric of Hungary. The following year, Andrew occupied Hum, despite the fact that Andrew did not stop conspiring against Emeric, the dying king made Andrew guardian of his son, Ladislaus III, in 1204. After the premature death of Ladislaus, Andrew ascended the throne in 1205, Andrew introduced a new grants policy, the so-called new institutions, giving away money and royal estates to his partisans despite the loss of royal revenues. He was the first Hungarian monarch to adopt the title of King of Halych and he waged at least a dozen wars to seize the two Rus principalities, but the local boyars and neighboring princes prevented him from conquering the principalities. He participated in the Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land in 1217–1218, when the servientes regis, or royal servants, rose up, Andrew was forced to issue the Golden Bull of 1222, confirming their privileges. This led to the rise of the nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary and his Diploma Andreanum of 1224 listed the liberties of the Transylvanian Saxon community. The employment of Jews and Muslims to administer the royal revenues led him into conflict with the Holy See, Andrew pledged to respect the privileges of the clergymen and to dismiss his non-Christian officials in 1233, but he never fulfilled the latter promise. Andrews first wife, Gertrude of Merania, was murdered in 1213, because her blatant favoritism towards her German kinsmen, the veneration of their daughter, Elizabeth of Hungary, was confirmed by the Holy See during Andrews lifetime. After Andrews death, his sons, Béla and Coloman, accused his wife, Beatrice dEste, of adultery and never considered her son, Stephen. Andrew was the son of King Béla III and Bélas first wife. The year of Andrews birth is not known, but modern historians agree that he was born around 1177, Andrew was first mentioned in connection to his fathers invasion of the Principality of Halych in 1188. That year, Béla III invaded Halych upon the request of its prince, Vladimir II Yaroslavich. Béla forced the new prince, Roman Mstislavich, to flee, after conquering Halych, he granted it to Andrew. Béla also captured Vladimir Yaroslavich and imprisoned him in Hungary, after Bélas withdrawal from Halych, Roman Mstislavich returned with the assistance of Rurik Rostislavich, Prince of Belgorod Kievsky. They tried to expel Andrew and his Hungarian retinue, but the Hungarians routed the forces of Mstislavich and Rostislavich

20.
Ottoman wars in Europe
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The earliest conflicts began during the Byzantine–Ottoman wars in the 13th century, followed by the Bulgarian–Ottoman wars and the Serbian–Ottoman Wars in the 14th century. Much of this period was characterized by Ottoman expansion into the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire made further inroads into Central Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, culminating in the peak of Ottoman territorial claims in Europe. The Ottoman–Venetian Wars spanned four centuries, starting in 1423 and lasting until 1718, the island of Corfu under Venetian rule remained the only Greek island not conquered by the Ottomans. Nevertheless, Ottoman armies were able to hold their own against their European rivals until the half of the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century the Ottomans were confronted with insurrection from their Serbian and this occurred in tandem with the Russo-Turkish wars, which further destabilized the empire. The final retreat of Ottoman rule came with the First Balkan War, Constantinople fell in 1453 after the Battle of Varna and the Second Battle of Kosovo. The remaining Greek state fell in 1461, sofia fell in 1382, followed by the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire Tarnovgrad in 1393, and the northwest remnants of the state after the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. Much of Serbia fell to the Ottomans by 1459, the Kingdom of Hungary made a partial reconquest in 1480, the Ottomans took much of Albania in the 1385 Battle of Savra. The 1444 League of Lezhë briefly restored one part of Albania, until Ottomans captured complete territory of Albania after capture of Shkodër in 1479 and Durrës in 1501. It has been argued that Albanian resilience halted the Ottoman advance along the Eastern flank of the Western Civilization, Sultan Mehmet II died in 1481, merely two years after the collapse of the Albanian resistance and one year after he launched an Italian campaign. Ottoman Empire first reached Bosnia in 1388 where they were defeated by Bosnian forces in the Battle of Bileca, after the fall of Serbia in 1389 Battle of Kosovo, where the Bosnians participated through Vlatko Vuković, the Turks began various offensives against the Kingdom of Bosnia. The Bosnians defended themselves but without much success, Bosnians resisted strongly in the Bosnian Royal castle of Jajce, where the last Bosnian king Stjepan Tomašević tried to repel the Turks. The Ottoman army conquered it after a few months of the siege of Jajce, in 1463, the House of Kosača held Herzegovina until 1482. The Ottomans meanwhile reached the river Neretva and having conquered Herzegovina in 1482, they encroached upon Croatia, a decisive Ottoman victory at the Battle of Krbava field shook all of Croatia. However, it did not dissuade the Croats from making persistent attempts at defending themselves against the attacks of the superior Ottoman forces. After almost two hundred years of Croatian resistance against the Ottoman Empire, the victory in the Battle of Sisak marked the end of Ottoman rule, the Viceroys army, chasing the fleeing remnants at Petrinja in 1595, sealed the victory. The Kingdom of Hungary, which at the time spanned the area from Croatia in the west to Transylvania in the east, was gravely threatened by Ottoman advances. The origins of such a deterioration can be traced back to the fall of the ruling dynasty and their subsequent replacement with the Angevin

21.
Fortification
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Fortifications are military constructions or buildings designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and also used to solidify rule in a region during peace time. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs, the term is derived from the Latin fortis and facere. From very early history to modern times, walls have been a necessity for cities to survive in a changing world of invasion. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified, in ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae. A Greek Phrourion was a collection of buildings used as a military garrison. These construction mainly served the purpose of a tower, to guard certain roads, passes. Though smaller than a fortress, they acted as a border guard rather than a real strongpoint to watch. The art of setting out a camp or constructing a fortification traditionally has been called castramentation since the time of the Roman legions. Fortification is usually divided into two branches, permanent fortification and field fortification, there is also an intermediate branch known as semi-permanent fortification. Castles are fortifications which are regarded as being distinct from the fort or fortress in that they are a residence of a monarch or noble. Roman forts and hill forts were the antecedents of castles in Europe. The Early Middle Ages saw the creation of towns built around castles. Medieval-style fortifications were made obsolete by the arrival of cannons in the 14th century. Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb, Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes. The arrival of explosive shells in the 19th century led to yet another stage in the evolution of fortification, steel-and-concrete fortifications were common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However the advances in warfare since World War I have made large-scale fortifications obsolete in most situations. Demilitarized zones along borders are arguably another type of fortification, although a passive kind, many military installations are known as forts, although they are not always fortified. Larger forts may be called fortresses, smaller ones were known as fortalices

22.
Knights Hospitaller
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It was headquartered variously in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, until it became known by its current name. Some scholars, however, consider that the Amalfitan order and hospital were different from Gerard Thoms order and it regained strength during the early 19th century as it redirected itself toward religious and humanitarian causes. In 1834, the order, by this time known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, acquired new headquarters in Rome, in 800, Emperor Charlemagne enlarged Probus hospital and added a library to it. About 200 years later, in 1005, Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the hospital, in 1023, merchants from Amalfi and Salerno in Italy were given permission by the Caliph Ali az-Zahir of Egypt to rebuild the hospital in Jerusalem. The hospital, which was built on the site of the monastery of Saint John the Baptist and it was served by the Order of Saint Benedict. Gerard acquired territory and revenues for his order throughout the Kingdom of Jerusalem, under his successor, Raymond du Puy de Provence, the original hospice was expanded to an infirmary near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Initially the group cared for pilgrims in Jerusalem, but the order extended to providing pilgrims with an armed escort. Thus the Order of St. John imperceptibly became military without losing its charitable character. Raymond du Puy, who succeeded Gerard as Master of the Hospital in 1118, organised a militia from the orders members, in 1130, Pope Innocent II gave the order its coat of arms, a silver cross in a field of red. The Hospitallers and the Knights Templar became the most formidable military orders in the Holy Land, frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, pledged his protection to the Knights of St. John in a charter of privileges granted in 1185. The statutes of Roger de Moulins deal only with the service of the sick, the order numbered three distinct classes of membership, the military brothers, the brothers infirmarians, and the brothers chaplains, to whom was entrusted the divine service. In 1248 Pope Innocent IV approved a military dress for the Hospitallers to be worn during battle. Instead of a closed cape over their armour, they wore a red surcoat with a cross emblazoned on it. Many of the more substantial Christian fortifications in the Holy Land were built by the Templars, at the height of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers held seven great forts and 140 other estates in the area. The two largest of these, their bases of power in the Kingdom and in the Principality of Antioch, were the Krak des Chevaliers, the property of the Order was divided into priories, subdivided into bailiwicks, which in turn were divided into commanderies. As early as the late 12th century the order had begun to achieve recognition in the Kingdom of England, as a result, buildings such as St Johns Jerusalem and the Knights Gate, Quenington in England were built on land donated to the order by local nobility. An Irish house was established at Kilmainham, near Dublin, after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291, the Knights were confined to the County of Tripoli and, when Acre was captured in 1291, the order sought refuge in the Kingdom of Cyprus. His successor, Foulques de Villaret, executed the plan, and on 15 August 1310, after four years of campaigning

23.
Croatian language
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It is the official and literary standard of Croatia and one of the official languages of the European Union. Croatian is also one of the languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a recognized minority language in Serbia. Croatian is written in Gajs Latin alphabet, besides the Shtokavian dialect, on which Standard Croatian is based, there are two other main dialects, Chakavian and Kajkavian. It is still used now in parts of Istria, which became a crossroads of various mixtures of Chakavian with Ekavian/Ijekavian/Ikavian dialects, the cultural apex of this 17th century idiom is represented by the editions of Adrianskoga mora sirena by Petar Zrinski and Putni tovaruš by Katarina Zrinska. However, this first linguistic renaissance in Croatia was halted by the execution of Petar Zrinski. Subsequently the Croatian elite in the 18th century gradually abandoned this combined Croatian standard, specifically, three major groups of dialects were spoken on Croatian territory, and there had been several literary languages over four centuries. The leader of the Illyrian movement Ljudevit Gaj standardized the Latin alphabet in 1830–1850, the uniform Neo-Shtokavian then became common in the Croatian elite. In the 1860s, the Zagreb Philological School dominated the Croatian cultural life, drawing upon linguistic, while it was dominant over the rival Rijeka Philological School and Zadar Philological Schools, its influence waned with the rise of the Croatian Vukovians. Croatian is commonly characterized by the Ijekavian pronunciation, the use of the Latin alphabet. Some differences are absolute, while some appear mainly in the frequency of use, Croatian, although technically a form of Serbo-Croatian, is sometimes considered a distinct language by itself. Differences between various forms of Serbo-Croatian are often exaggerated for political reasons. Most Croatian linguists regard Croatian as a language that is considered key to national identity. The issue is sensitive in Croatia as the notion of a language being the most important characteristic of a nation is widely accepted. The terms Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat are still used as a term for all these forms by foreign scholars. Within ex-Yugoslavia, the term has largely replaced by the ethnic terms Serbian, Croatian. In 2013, the EU started publishing a Croatian language version of its official gazette, Standard Croatian is the official language of the Republic of Croatia and, along with Standard Bosnian and Standard Serbian, one of three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also official in the regions of Burgenland, Molise, additionally, it has co-official status alongside Romanian in the communes of Carașova and Lupac, Romania. Croatian is officially used and taught at all the universities in Croatia, there is no regulatory body that determines the proper usage of Croatian

24.
Counts of Celje
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The Counts of Celje or the Counts of Cilli were the most influential late medieval noble dynasty on the territory of present-day Slovenia. Risen as vassals of the Habsburg dukes of Styria, they ruled the County of Cilli as immediate counts from 1341, however, the line became extinct when the last count Ulrich II of Celje was killed in 1456. The Lords of Sanneck Castle on the Sann river in Lower Styria were first mentioned around 1123/30 and their ancestors may have been relatives of Saint Hemma of Gurk, who held large estates in the area. The fortress was already built under the rule of Charlemagne as a stronghold against the Avars. One Leopold of Sanneck appeared as a supporter of the Habsburg king Rudolf I of Germany in the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld, frederick finally prevailed with the support of Otto the Merry, the Habsburg duke of Styria. He became governor of Carniola and the Windic March in 1332 and was elevated to comital status by Emperor Louis IV in 1341 at Munich, receiving the title Cylie or Cilli derived from Celje Castle. In a short period of time the Counts of Celje owned more than 20 castles all over the territory of modern Slovenia and his son William married Anna of Poland, daughter of the Polish king Casimir III the Great. The Counts of Cilli were related by marriage with rulers of Bosnia and Polish, also through the Barbara of Cilli the Counts were in kinship with kings of Bohemia. As a reward the king donated the city of Varaždin, the county of Zagorje, in 1401 the Counts of Cilli were among Sigismunds supporters against the relucting Hungarian magnates. Their alliance with the Imperial House of Luxembourg became even closer through the marriage of Hermanns daughter Barbara of Cilli to the king in 1405, in 1418 Count Hermann II inherited the Carinthian and Carniolan estates of the extinct Counts of Ortenburg. In 1410 Sigismund had been elected King of the Romans and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1433, in 1436 he elevated the Counts of Cilli to the rank of Princes of the Holy Roman Empire. The Habsburgs, whose strongest rivals they had become, reacted with a war that lasted until 1443, Count Ulrich II of Cilli was the most powerful member of the Cilli family. In 1432 he married Catherine, daughter of the Serbian despot Đurađ Branković, Ulrich held a large influence in many courts, which originated from the relationships the Cilli family had made in the past. Upon the death of the Habsburg king Albert II in 1439, he tried to get regency of Hungary, with such ambitions he got many opponents and rivals, such as the Hungarian Hunyadi family. Thus, Ulrich II became de facto regent of Hungary, in 1456 after the death of his rival John Hunyadi, Ulrich II succeeded him as Captain General of Hungary. That initiated a plot by the Hunyadi family against Ulrich II and it is also the current coat of arms of Celje. Wife Veronika of Desenice Ulrich II, son, married Catherine of Branković Kantakuzina Katarina Branković, widow of Ulrich, Castle view Video showing the Celje Castle today

25.
Frankopan
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The House of Frankopan, was a Croatian noble family, whose members were among the great landowner magnates and high officers of the Kingdom of Hungary–Croatia. The Frankopan family was one of the leading Croatian aristocratic families which dates back to the 12th century. Along with the Zrinski family it had, in Croatian and Hungarian history, ranked high in terms of importance by virtue of power, wealth, fame, glory, some scholars consider them to be closely connected with the Roman patrician Frangipani family. The Frangipani were a Roman princely family which claimed descent from a Roman plebeian family of Anicii, the family allegedly took the name Frangipani in the 8th century. In 837 four brothers of the Frangipani family left Rome, Michele chose Venice as his domicile, the descendants of Michele obtained the island of Krk from the Venetians. Around 1200 the family owned wide areas on the mainland, including the Castle of Ribnik, in 1240–1241 the Mongol Empire advanced from Poland toward Hungary whose King, Béla IV resisted bravely but finally had to seek refuge in Dalmatia. King Béla stayed with the Frankopans who assisted him with arms and funds and brought him into safety in Veglia, as reward the King gave the Frankopans the county of Senj with surrounding lands and the castle of Modruš. In 1246 there was war, between Frederick II, Duke of Austria and Béla, who, with the assistance of the Frankopan. As a further reward, King Béla then, by decree, created the Frankopans as Lords of their territory for them. The Frankopans constantly supported the Catholic Church, in particular, Nikola Frankopan reconstructed the Holy House of Our Lady in 1294 in Tersatto. In 1294 Nikola Frankopan, gave the Holy House to the Pope to be placed on Papal lands, at Loreto, near Ancona. Although the possessions of the family were exposed to assault both from the east and the west, their power increased steadily until the 17th century when their lands reached further east. The Zrinski and Frankopan families came into closer affinity by marriage ties until in the eyes of the European courts they had one of the most important families of Croatia. Ivan VI Frankopan lived in Sweden at intervals between 1420 and 1430, after his fathers death he returned to his home country. His eldest son called Matthias stayed in Sweden, Sigismund underlines at the end of this document that no one must ever dispute these rights of the family. Bernardin Frankopans paternal grandmother Dorothy was from a prominent Hungarian noble family, Garay and he and his brother-in-law, Petar Zrinski were executed in Wiener Neustadt. The line of Stjepan II Frankopan, Ban of Croatia, died out with Katarina Frankopan in the 16th century, the line of Sigismund Frankopan expired with Franjo Frankopan, Bishop of Eger in 1542. Another branch died out in 1572 with Franjo Frankopan, Ban of Croatia, first Frankopan, and son of Ivan V of Krk

26.
George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach
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George of Brandenburg-Ansbach, known as George the Pious, was a Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach from the House of Hohenzollern. He was born in Ansbach, the third of eight sons of Margrave Frederick the Elder and his wife Sophia of Poland, daughter of Casimir IV of Poland, through his mother, he was related to the royal court in Buda. He entered the service of his uncle, King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary, by the further appropriation of the Duchy of Jägerndorf, George came into possession of all Upper Silesia. As the owner and mortgagee of these territories he prepared the way for the introduction of the Protestant Reformation, the first reformatory writings began the work of winning him over to the evangelical cause. The study of Luthers translation of the New Testament, which appeared in 1522, after the accession of King Louis II, George was aided in his reforming efforts by Queen Maria, a sister of Charles V and Ferdinand I, who was favorably inclined toward the new doctrine. As the adviser of the king, George firmly advocated the cause of the new gospel against the influences and intrigues of his clerical opponents. But it was his own influence, energy, and practical spirit that introduced the new doctrine and founded a new evangelical. Owing to his marriage with a Bavarian princess and to his command in the imperial service, his brother was allied more closely with the old church. George protested against such half-measures and showed his dissatisfaction with the resolutions of the state assembly of October 1526. After its introduction in Nuremberg and his territories in Franconia, it was introduced in his dominions in Upper Silesia. Georges influence manifested itself also in the development of the German Reformation as a whole, but neither at the Convention of Schwabach nor at that of Schmalkalden did George approve armed resistance against the emperor and his party, even in self-defense. He opposed the emperor energetically at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, King Ferdinand made George the most alluring offers of Silesian possessions if he would support the emperor, but he strongly rejected them. Next to the elector of Saxony, he stands foremost among the princes who defended the reformed faith. After the death of his cousin, Joachim I, who was a strict Romanist, the Diet of Regensburg was the last religious meeting which he attended. He is one of the figures on the Prussian Homage painting by Jan Matejko, George went on to marry three times, First to Beatrice de Frangepan, the marriage produced no children. Sabina of Brandenburg-Ansbach married John George, Elector of Brandenburg, barbara of Brandenburg-Ansbach Dorothy Catherine of Brandenburg-Ansbach married in 1556 Henry V of Plauen, Burgrave of Meissen. George Frederick, who became Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Regent of the Duchy of Prussia and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed. article name needed. New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, london and New York, Funk and Wagnalls

27.
Count
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Count or countess is a title in European countries for a noble of varying status, but historically deemed to convey an approximate rank intermediate between the highest and lowest titles of nobility. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning “companion”, the adjective form of the word is comital. The British and Irish equivalent is an earl, alternative names for the count rank in the nobility structure are used in other countries, such as Graf in Germany and Hakushaku during the Japanese Imperial era. In the Western Roman Empire, Count came to indicate generically a military commander, in the Eastern Roman Empire, from about the seventh century, count was a specific rank indicating the commander of two centuries. Military counts in the Late Empire and the Germanic successor kingdoms were often appointed by a dux, the position of comes was originally not hereditary. By virtue of their estates, many counts could pass the title to their heirs—but not always. For instance, in Piast Poland, the position of komes was not hereditary, the title had disappeared by the era of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the office had been replaced by others. Only after the Partitions of Poland did the title of count resurface in the title hrabia, in the United Kingdom, the equivalent Earl can also be used as a courtesy title for the eldest son of a duke or marquess. In Italy, by contrast, all the sons of certain counts were counts, in Sweden there is a distinction between counts created before and after 1809. All children in comital families elevated before 1809 are called count/countess, the following lists are originally based on a Glossary on Heraldica. org by Alexander Krischnig. The male form is followed by the female, and when available, apart from all these, a few unusual titles have been of comital rank, not necessarily to remain there. Dauphin was a comital title in southern France, used by the Dauphins of Vienne and Auvergne. The Dauphin was the lord of the province known as the région Dauphiné. Conde-Barão Count-Baron is a title used in Portugal, notably by D. Luís Lobo da Silveira, 7th Baron of Alvito. His palace in Lisbon still exists, located in a named after him. The German Graf and Dutch graaf stems from the Byzantine-Greek grapheus meaning he who calls a meeting together), the Ottoman military title of Serdar was used in Montenegro and Serbia as a lesser noble title with the equivalent rank of a Count. Since Louis VII, the highest precedence amongst the vassals of the French crown was enjoyed by those whose benefice or temporal fief was a pairie, i. e. In the eleventh century, conti like the Count of Savoy or the Norman Count of Apulia, were virtually sovereign lords of broad territories

28.
Ban (title)
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Ban /ˈbɑːn/ was a noble title used in several states in Central and Southeastern Europe between the 7th century and the 20th century. In English, common term for the province governed by ban is banate, in the 30th chapter, describing how the Croatian state was divided into eleven ζουπανίας, the ban βοάνος, καὶ ὁ βοάνος αὐτῶν κρατεῖ τὴν Κρίβασαν, τὴν Λίτζαν καὶ τὴν Γουτζησκά. In 1029 was published a Latin charter by Jelena, sister of ban Godemir, in Obrovac, in it she is introduced as Ego Heleniza, soror Godemiri bani. Franjo Rački noted that if is not an original, then is certainly a transcript from the same 11th century, in the 12th century, the title was mentioned by Byzantine historian John Kinnamos, anonymous monk of Dioclea, and in the Supetar Cartulary. The Byzantine historian John Kinnamos wrote the title in the form μπάνος. In the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, which is dated to 12th and 13th century, in the Latin redaction is written as banus, banum, bano, and in the Croatian redaction only as ban. The Supetar Cartulary includes information until the 12th century, but the writing about bans is dated to the late 13th and early 14th century. It mentions that there existed seven bans and they were elected by the six of twelve Croatian noble tribes, the Late Proto-Slavic word *banъ is not of native Slavic lexical stock and is generally considered to be a borrowing from a Turkic language. The titles origin among medieval Croats is not completely understood, and as much is hard to determine the exact source and to reconstruct the primal form of the Turkic word it is derived from. It is generally explained as a derivation from the Avar name Bayan, the Proto-Turkic root *bāj- is sometimes explained as a native Turkic word, however, it is generally considered a borrowing from the Iranian bay. Within the Altaic theory, the Turkic word is inherited from the Proto-Altaic *bēǯu numerous, the title word ban was also derived from the name Bojan, and there were additionally proposed Iranian, and Indo-European, language origin. Some scholars assume that the name was a possible misinterpretation of a title, but Bayan already had a title of khagan, however, the title ban among the Avars has never been attested to in the historical sources. It was used as evidence throughout the history of historioraphy to prove ideological assumptions on Avars, the starting point of the debate was year 1837, and the work of historian and philologist Pavel Jozef Šafárik, whose thesis has influenced generations of scholars. However, modern scholars until now proved the opposite, that Avars never lived in Dalmatia proper, and that statement occurred somewhere in Pannonia. Franc Miklošič wrote that the word, of Croatian origin, probably was expanded by the Croats among the Bulgarians and Serbs, Đuro Daničić decided for an intermediate solution, by origin is Avar or Persian from bajan. Bury derived the title from the name of Avar khagan Bayan I, tadija Smičiklas and Vatroslav Jagić thought that the title should not derive from bajan, but from bojan, as thus how it is written in the Greek historical records. He mentioned both thesis, as well the German-Gothic theory derivation, ferdo Šišić considered that is impossible it directly originated from a personal name of an Avar ruler because the title needs a logical continuity. He doubted its existence among Slavic tribes during the great migration, the thesis of alleged Avar governor title Šišić based on his personal derivation of bajan from the title khagan

Croatian captain Petar Kružić led the defense of the Klis Fortress against a Turkish invasion and siege that lasted for more than two and a half decades. During this defense, an elite Croatian military faction of Uskoci was formed.

Ottoman advances resulted in some of the captive Christians being carried deep into Turkish territory

"Piae Postulatio Voluntatis". Bull issued by Pope Paschal II in 1113 in favour of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, which was to transform what was a community of pious men into an institution within the Church. By virtue of this document, the pope officially recognized the existence of the new organisation as an operative and militant part of the Roman Catholic Church, granting it papal protection and confirming its properties in Europe and Asia.

The division between lands to be administered from Vienna (deep pink) and lands to be administered from Budapest (yellow) under the 1867 dual monarchy Ausgleich" agreement. From 1878, Bosnia-Herzegovina (green) was jointly administered.